June 3, 2014 AT 5:00 am

App Day Gets 900 Kids Coding Inside One Gymnasium #makereducation

Puget Sound App Day, which was put on by Seattle Public Schools, gathered nearly 900 students from throughout Washington State for a day of coding. For many of the students, this was their first guided exposure to coding apps and programs. From GeekWire:

“Our grand vision was to have some formula where we take kids that don’t have coding experience and get them exposed to it,” said Michael Braun, a lead organizer and computer science teacher at Rainier Beach. “Having a forum like this really allows them to both learn some basic skills, plus get mentorship.”

Another notable part of App Day were the students themselves, many of whom come from low-income households.
“Once you get the concept of coding, it can really fuel you being a change agent,” Braun said. “You can affect your local community and solve problems that haven’t been addressed. These students, wherever they come from, all have local issues. Once they have the power and understand the tools to code, they can create software and programs that make a big change.”

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